Introduction to Horizontal attacks

Intended audience:
No previous knowledge on horizontal attacks is required. However, it is useful to have some experience with DPA attacks. Familiarity with RSA algorithm is nice to have but not compulsory.

Brief description of the tutorial:
We start with explaining the limitations of classical vertical attacks (also known as DPA) when applied to an RSA implementation protected with exponent and message blinding. Next, we describe what are horizontal attacks and how they work. All concepts are illustrated by practical exercises and together we will walk through an example of a horizontal attack. The goal of the exercise is to retrieve an the privet key of an RSA protected implementation from an embedded board.

What will you learn?
The difference between horizontal attacks and the classical vertical attacks more commonly known as DPA attacks. You will learn why and when to apply horizontal attacks. You will gain knowledge on how horizontal attacks are applied in practise and learn to make informed choices when choosing the attacks parameters (for example the type of distinguisher).